Black Friday spending surges despite quieter high streets

Early Black Friday spending has seen a significant uptick from last year, providing a much-needed lift for retailers feeling the pinch.

Although there was a slight dip in high street footfall, online shops experienced a notable increase in sales as they rolled out a plethora of deals to attract customers on the busy shopping day. Nationwide Building Society reported that by 2pm on Friday, its customers had clocked up 5.24 million transactions – marking a 12% rise from Black Friday the previous year and an 18% jump compared to a typical Friday.

Mark Nalder, Nationwide's director of payment strategy, said: "Due to the strong sales over the last couple of hours, this year’s Black Friday is in line with our expectation that this will be the busiest shopping day on record for our customers. However, it is important people continue to shop within their means and not buy items just because they are reduced."

Mr Nalder further speculated on the aftermath of the shopping frenzy, saying: "It will be interesting in the coming days and week to see how busy the returns departments at retailers are, as many experience buyer’s remorse after snapping up so many bargains."

In addition, Klarna, a company specialising in buy-now-pay-later services, observed an even more substantial transaction increase, with sales during the first 12 hours up by 26% compared to last year's Black Friday. Early data from Klarna highlighted Adidas Samba trainers as one of the top-selling items.